Chris Foreman (born Christopher John Foreman, 8 August 1956, London), nicknamed Chrissy Boy, is an English guitarist, best known as a member of a second wave ska band, Madness.
Foreman started Madness with Mike Barson and Lee Thompson in 1976. Foreman was one of the group's main songwriters, mostly writing music with other members, usually Suggs or Lee Thompson, providing the lyrics. After Madness disbanded in 1986 he formed a new band The Madness with Thompson, Suggs and Chas Smash but they broke up after releasing one album. Then he, alongside Thompson, created another group called The Nutty Boys with Thompson on lead vocals. They released an album called Crunch! in 1990. The band are now known as Crunch!, and play in London every couple of years. Foreman reunited with all seven original Madness members in 1992, but in 2005 announced that he was leaving the band.
However, on Thursday 30 November 2006 it was confirmed that Foreman was returning to play on Madness' forthcoming UK Christmas tour, and he has been with the band ever since.
The same year he moved out of his Kentish Town home, and settled on the South Coast with his wife Melissa and three children.
In 2006, Foreman began using a mobile phone attached to his guitar to record short videos from his position on stage during live Madness performances to provide fans with a unique perspective from the "guitar's eye view". He coined the term "Axecam" to describe this filming technique. By December 2008, he had acquired a higher quality digital video camera which he attached to the shoulder strap of his guitar using an "Axecam holder", crafted by a member of the stage crew just before Madness went on stage at the O2 Arena on 19 December 2008. The new "Axecam" produced a far more stable picture and Foreman posted the first video from this performance ("It Must Be Love") to the MadnessStudio2008 Channel on YouTube on 20 December 2008.
Foreman also maintains a series of videos made with the Axecam entitled "Chrissy Boy Meets And Greets...", in which he meets famous people that have either appeared alongside Madness at festivals, or that have attended awards ceremonies with Madness. The video is normally a close up of the famous person's face, with Foreman out of shot, and usually consists of a few spoken words, and perhaps a joke or humorous reference from Foreman to the star's career. Each clip is normally less than ten seconds long. Stars featured have included: Dizzee Rascal, Al Murray, Plan B, Alex James, Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn (all of Blur), former Madness singer/drummer/manager John Hasler, all 6 members of the reformed Specials, ex-Bodysnatcher and Madness collaborator Rhoda Dakar, Martin Freeman, Eamonn Holmes, Jeremy Clarkson, a random fan going by the name of Owen The Nutter, Lulu, and Peter Andre, as well as an Elvis Impersonator from Australia.
References
External links
http://www.myspace.com/crunchuk
http://www.crunch.uk.com/
http://www.madness.co.uk/
Category:English rock guitarists
Category:1955 births
Category:Living people
Category:Madness (band) members
Category:People from Camden
